ISSN (online): 1802-8829http://www.eje.cz gate current research on the impacts of urbanisation using odonates as a model group. First, we will present a brief overview on the impacts of urbanisation on terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, then we conduct a systematic literature review regarding odonates in urban environments and outline the plausible effects on odonates, followed by the use of odonates as bioindicators, the conservation value of urban wetlands for odonates, a summary of evolutionary strategies for species to cope with urban stressors, and fi nally we conclude by identifying research needs. THE EFFECTS OF URBAN STRESSORS ON TERRESTRIAL AND FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMSThe wide range of impacts associated with urbanisation indicates that it exerts a considerable effect on terrestrial biodiversity. Most studies show that species richness and evenness is reduced in highly urbanised regions, depending on the taxonomic group observed, degree of urbanisation, and spatial scale of analysis (McKinney, 2002(McKinney, , 2008. For example, butterfl ies (Ruszczyk, 1987;Ruszczyk & De Araujo, 1992; Blair & Launer, 1997) and ground arthropods (McIntyre et al., 2001) show this tendency. The general pattern of biodiversity decrease in cities is probably due to the fact that over 80% of land in city cores is covered by buildings and pavements, with the remain- Abstract. The expansion of urban areas is one of the most signifi cant anthropogenic impacts on the natural landscape. Due to their sensitivity to stressors in both aquatic and terrestrial habitats, dragonfl ies and damselfl ies (the Odonata) may provide insights into the effects of urbanisation on biodiversity. However, while knowledge about the impacts of urbanisation on odonates is growing, there has not been a comprehensive review of this body of literature until now. This is the fi rst systematic literature review conducted to evaluate both the quantity and topics of research conducted on odonates in urban ecosystems. From this research, 79 peer-reviewed papers were identifi ed, the vast majority (89.87%) of which related to studies of changing patterns of biodiversity in urban odonate communities. From the papers regarding biodiversity changes, 31 were performed in an urban-rural gradient and 21 of these reported lower diversity towards built up city cores. Twelve of the cases of biodiversity loss were directly related to the concentrations of pollutants in the water. Other studies found higher concentrations of pollutants in odonates from built-up catchments and suggested that odonates such as Aeshna juncea and Platycnemis pennipes may be candidate indicators for particular contaminants. We conclude by identifying current research needs, which include the need for more studies regarding behavioural ecology and life-history traits in response to urbanisation, and a need to investigate the mechanisms behind diversity trends beyond pollution.

diversity of types of acoustic pollution, and encourage further work regarding trophic interactions with insects using a functional response approach.

Urbanisation is one of the major drivers of ecosystem change and includes increased temperatures in cities leading to an urban heat island (UHI). This study quantified the phenological response of odonates across London, UK, from 1990 to 2012, using a database of 1,031,277 historical sightings. The ordinal flight dates of each species were used to calculate the leading edge, middle and trailing edge of the flight period (P5, P50 and P95, respectively). The results suggest that the phenology of odonates is affected by the UHI only at a community level: no significant changes in the P5 or P50 of the flight period were found, although the P95 shows a mean advance of 4.13 days compared to rural areas, thus suggesting a contraction of the flight period in urban areas. However, only one individual species (Sympetrum striolatum) exhibited an advance in the P95 of the flight period in urban areas compared to rural areas. On the other hand, climate change (minimum temperature) had a much stronger impact on the phenology of odonates at the community level with a significant advance of 6.9 days °C−1 in the P5 of the flight period, 3.1 days °C−1 in the P50 and 3.3 days °C−1 in the P95 flight date. Similarly, a significant advance in P5 was found in 7 of the 15 species tested in response to minimum temperature, and 2 species showed a significant advance in P50 in response to minimum temperature, but no species showed a shift in the P95 flight date due to minimum temperature. As shown in previous studies, life history influences the phenological response of odonates, with spring species and those species lacking an egg diapause being the most responsive to increased temperatures, although summer species and species with obligate egg diapause also respond to the UHI by advancing the P95 by 3.8 and 4.5 days, respectively, compared to rural areas, thus contracting the flight period. The present study shows that the UHI has negligible impacts on emergence patterns of odonates compared to climate change, which may result from the capacity of aquatic habitats to buffer the microclimatic conditions of the surrounding terrestrial habitats. We conclude by highlighting the importance of climate change on freshwater habitats over the impacts of the UHI.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00484-017-1311-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Maintaining and improving water quality is key to the protection and restoration of aquatic ecosystems, which provide important benefits to society. In Europe, the Water Framework Directive (WFD) defines water quality based on a set of biological, hydro-morphological and chemical targets, and aims to reach good quality conditions in all river bodies by the year 2027. While recently it has been argued that achieving these goals will deliver and enhance ecosystem services, in particular recreational services, there is little empirical evidence demonstrating so. Here we test the hypothesis that good water quality is associated with increased utilization of recreational services, combining four surveys covering walking, boating, fishing and swimming visits, together with water quality data for all water bodies in eight River Basin Districts (RBDs) in England. We compared the percentage of visits in areas of good water quality to a set of null models accounting for population density, income, age distribution, travel distance, public access, and substitutability. We expect such association to be positive, at least for fishing (which relies on fish stocks) and swimming (with direct contact to water). We also test if these services have stronger association with water quality relative to boating and walking alongside rivers, canals or lakeshores. In only two of eight RBDs (Northumbria and Anglian) were both criteria met (positive association, strongest for fishing and swimming) when comparing to at least one of the null models. This conclusion is robust to variations in dataset size. Our study suggests that achieving the WFD water quality goals may not enhance recreational ecosystem services, and calls for further empirical research on the connection between water quality and ecosystem services.

This is a repository copy of Wing shape patterns among urban, suburban, and rural populations of Ischnura elegans (Odonata: Coenagrionidae).

Human activities such as logging, agriculture, and urbanization can drastically change and limit Odonata species distributions in aquatic and terrestrial environments. These modifications may culminate in extirpations of rare and resident species and homogenization of community composition across space. This chapter reviews how human land use is (re)shaping odonate assemblages and focuses on the impacts from logging, agriculture, and urbanization. Deeper appreciation and analysis of regulatory mechanisms (e.g. vulnerability traits, species interactions, phylogenetic niche conservatism) and background “noise” (e.g. natural heterogeneity, climate change, historical context) will be important in understanding and predicting odonate community responses to ongoing and future landscape alteration.

We report the first records of the invasive Tokay Gecko, Gekko gecko (Linnaeus, 1758), in Mexico, based on the discovery of five specimens from Reynosa, Tamaulipas.

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